Adi Fellows ‘19

Student-athlete sets sights on speech-language pathology

When coach Suzette Soboti asked Adi Fellows ‘19 if she was interested in joining the lacrosse team during her first year at the University of Redlands, Fellows—who had been recruited as a soccer player—rose to the challenge.

“Because my soccer coach is also the lacrosse coach, she approached me and asked me to join the team,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about the sport, so she taught me how to play. Now, I love both the sports and it’s fun because [my sports are] always in season throughout the school year.”

Fellows, an Albuquerque native, was drawn to the University by the communication sciences and disorders major and the friendly atmosphere on campus.

Due to a year-round schedule of sporting events and a rigorous course load, Fellows was at first unsure if she would have the opportunity to rush one of the local sororities on campus. After getting approval from her coaches, though, she was accepted into the Delta Kappa Psi sorority and Alpha Phi Omega, a national fraternity dedicated to community service.

Looking back, Fellows says that being a part of both the athletic and Greek communities has facilitated some of her favorite memories. “Most athletes rush in their offseason, but because I don’t have an offseason it was more of a challenge,” she says. “The rush process was so interesting and introduced me to how close everyone in the Greek community is—it’s definitely different than bigger public universities.”

A communication sciences and disorders major and psychology minor, Fellows says her academic journey has also led to new discoveries. “The majority of the communicative disorder faculty are speech-language pathologists, and it has been really cool to form relationships with them and see what life is like in that career,” she says. “Learning from their personal experiences has been really valuable to me.”

Fellows is already thinking about the next steps to become a speech-language pathologist, which include volunteering at speech clinics and applying to graduate schools. “I’ve always wanted to do something in the medical field,” she says. “Coming to the University of Redlands allowed me to find my passions.”